Some Fantastical Fall Listens!

I ADORE magical children’s stories in the vein of Diana Wynne Jones. It’s like Alice in Wonderland, but waaaayyy less confusing (No shade, Alice. You know I love you.) So it’s no surprise that I loved Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend.

The story begins with Morrigan Crow, a girl destined to die before she ever reaches adolescence, or, that’s what she’s always been told. On what’s supposed to be her last birthday, Morrigan is whisked away to a magical land she never knew existed. Nevermoor is home to a huge menagerie of fabulous creatures, incredible holidays, and more kinds of magic than you can name.

But Morrigan learns that she’s being entered in a competition for a spot at the most prestigious magical school in the land. Each new challenge has a new task she must complete to stay in the competition. There’s dragon riding, sinister characters, and delightful giant cats.

I couldn’t get enough of this magical story, and Gemma Whalen performs the audiobook so well. She has this way of capturing your attention immediately, providing the perfect voices for the characters. Whalen also narrates the other two books in the series, Wundersmith and Hollowpox, which means that with each new story, I’m still hearing all of the same voices for characters.

Narrated by Gemma Whalen

Hawthorne and Horowitz are back to solve another crime in A Line to Kill. This time around, they are invited to a literary festival held on an island off the southern coast of England. When someone is found dead, no one is allowed on or off the island. But will Hawthorne and Horowitz  be able to solve the crime before more people are murdered?

Narrated by Rory Kinnear (Nutshell by Ian McEwan & The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz)

In Carefree Black Girls, Zeba Blay Bray discusses Black women throughout history and their impact on American culture. This book is also a celebration of Black women and, as Blay says herself, Carefree Black Girls is “a way to carve out a space of celebration and freedom for black women online.”

Narrated by Zeba Blay

Monster in the Middle features a love story of a Muslim man from a mixed faith background and a Catholic woman from the Caribbean. But their story didn’t really begin with them. Their lives represent the culmination of hundreds, if not thousands, of decisions by their parents and their parents before them. Monster in the Middle gives listeners a glimpse into those past decisions and they affect the current generation.

Narrated by Tiphanie Yanique, Oceana James, Karen Murray, Ronald Peet, and George Silcott Jr. (Good Kings Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum & The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi Durrow)

Fans of Elizabeth Strout will rejoice—Oh William! is here! Lucy Barton thought her relationship with her ex-husband William would always be unpredictable, but she never thought he would ask her to go on a trip with him. William intends on researching his family history, particularly an old family secret. But if it’s his family, why does he keep asking Lucy to go with him?

Narrated by Kimberly Farr (My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud’Homme & Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout)

Andromeda is an exorcist who has been thrown out of her home before she could finish getting her license. Now, she can’t seem to find a way to make a living. So when a mysterious job comes her way, Andromeda doesn’t stop to ask questions. She just says, “YES!” But that decision soon comes back to bite her as she finds herself in way over her head.

Narrated by Nneka Okoye (Love in Color: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold by Nneka Okoye & Hot Stew by Fiona Mozley)